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Chapter 1:
It started as any other day, but the queasiness in my stomach and the dull ache in my skull was a portent that it wasn’t to be as such. My scrying bowl was bubbling with enough activity to wake me from a wonderful dream. As I leaned over it and chanted the words absent-mindly, I was startled to see the visions that were normally cloudy and murky suddenly crystal clear. Standing tall in the middle of a swarm of the walking dead was my arch-nemesis, the once human but now Lich, Ploog. As I struggled to widen my view and ascertain his precise location, I became clear that he had removed his spell of protection on purpose. He wanted to be found. Especially in a place where his power would be at it’s strongest. What was he up to, I wondered.
Was he calling me to battle? Did he want a meeting? I wasn’t sure, but I prepared my pouch for either event. Before I could even concentrate on phasing to his location, the answer became clear. He wasn’t looking for me. He had far different plans.
As they are prone to do, the mysterious Bane fell out of the shadows and confronted the Lich Lord with the same caviler attitude and disregard they have for all beings. Needless to say, Ploog was unimpressed. I barely had time to stand up before what looked to be the Bane Leader and his Druid subordinate were set upon by the legion of undead that were swarming around their Lord and rising up from the dark wet soil.
In no time at all, the Bane’s emissaries were nothing more than a meal for the hungry zombies without the Lich raising a mere finger in anger. How powerful he has grown since I brought about his demise so long ago. I made a mental note to find and punish this necromancer and the witless fool who sought to raise the dead with ancient magic they knew nothing of. In the end, they paid the ultimate price anyway.
